Amp Farm
Plug-In Guide
Version 3
Digidesign
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Daly City, CA 94014-3886 USA
tel: 650·731·6300
fax: 650·731·6399
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tel: 800·333·2137
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for contact information
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Copyright
This guide is copyrighted ©2004 by Line 6, Inc.,
and ©2004 by Digidesign, a division of Avid
Technology, Inc. (hereafter “Digidesign”), with all
rights reserved. Under copyright laws, this guide
may not be duplicated in whole or in part without
the written consent of Digidesign.
DIGIDESIGN, AVID and PRO TOOLS are
trademarks or registered trademarks of
Digidesign and/or Avid Technology, Inc.
Product features, specifications, system
requirements and availability are subject to
change without notice.
PN: 932914784-00 REV A 12/04
The following disclaimer is required by Line 6,
Inc.:
Line 6, Amp Farm, POD and Variax are
trademarks of Line 6, Inc. All other product
names, trademarks, and artists names are the
property of their respective owners, which are in
no way associated or affiliated with Line 6.
Product names, song names and artists names
are used solely to identify the products whose
tones and sounds were studied during Line 6’s
sound model development for this product. The
use of these products, trademarks, and artists’
names does not imply any cooperation or
endorsement.
chapter 1
Amp Farm
Since its introduction in May 1998, Amp Farm
(along with its hardware brother, POD) sparked
a revolution in the world of guitar recording.
Amp Farm quickly became the trusted guitar recording tool for many of the world’s top
Pro Tools users, and an essential part of hundreds of platinum albums, mega-budget movie
soundtracks, premiere TV music productions—
and Pro Tools guitar recording projects of all
shapes and sizes.
Creative producers also quickly found the value
of processing non-guitar sources through Amp
Farm, punching up—or munching up—the
sound of drums, keyboards, vocals, sound design sources and practically any audio that can
benefit from some tube warmth, distortion
grind, or speaker cabinet life.
For guitar recording, Amp Farm lets you jack any
guitar right into your Pro Tools TDM system
and instantly hear it running through your
choice of spot-on recreations of world-class guitar amplifiers, cabinets and microphones. A few
mouse clicks is all it takes to quickly experiment
with different amp, cab, mic and tone knob settings, all without dragging around physical
amps, cabs and microphones, or paying for cartage. And of course, you get to adjust the sound
of that guitar amp-cab-mic rig right up until
your final mix, right in your Pro Tools session,
for incredible speed, flexibility and creativity—
and the world standard pro guitar tone that is
what great recordings are all about.
What’s New in Amp Farm Version 3
Amp Farm version 3 introduces a dramatic new
level of realism and life to Amp Farm-processed
tracks thanks to the Line 6 exclusive Mic Modeling and new generation Cab Models that have
been added. Using a Pro Tools-exclusive variation of technology from our acclaimed PODxt
series hardware, these features dramatically upgrade the sonic power of Amp Farm.
You still get the same great Amp and Cab Models as previous versions of Amp Farm, and every
old preset you have saved will still work and
sound the way you are used to. But users of the
older versions will notice that the selection list
available from the Cab Model menu is about
twice as large. Pick a Cab Model from the first
half of this list, and the new Mic Model menu
becomes available, letting you choose one of
four mic setups to use on that cabinet.
The new version of Amp Farm also provides
compatibility with Pro Tools TDM 6.7 software.
Digidesign Pro Tools|HD, HD Accel and the
VENUE Live Sound Environment are the supported hardware platforms for Amp Farm 3.
Chapter 1: Amp Farm
1
Amp Farm 2.x Preset Compatibility
Factory and custom presets created for Amp
Farm 2.x will work within Amp Farm 3.x. However, if changes are made to these presets with
Amp Farm 3, you will need to save them so that
they can be recalled with the session. Additionally, note that presets created in Amp Farm 3.x
are not compatible with Amp Farm 2.
We assume here that you have already got
your Pro Tools system all setup and cranking
away. The only thing to add to your present
setup is a direct connection from your guitar
to your Pro Tools audio interface. Refer to
your Digidesign documentation for details.
Amp Farm Features
Clean Direct
Amp Farm features include:
To get your guitar signal into Amp Farm, you
want to boost your totally clean guitar signal to
line level and then feed that signal to your
Pro Tools interface. We are looking for unadulterated guitar input here—you do not want to
use hardware intended to color the guitar’s direct sound. If your Pro Tools interface includes a
guitar-level input, that will of course be ideal.
Steer clear of amp simulators. You can use a guitar preamp, as long as it is clean, with a flat frequency response—no tone shaping.
◆ Over a dozen Amp Models that faithfully recreate the tone and feel of a world class collection
of guitar combos and heads, with simple ampstyle control that every guitarist understands.
◆ Dozens of dramatically diverse Cab Models
from a tiny 2-inch to massive vintage 4x12s, for
easy mix and match with any Amp Model.
◆ Selectable Mic Models capture classic cabinet
miking techniques to give you rich, dynamic
live sound right in your Pro Tools session.
Process live guitar inputs or tweak pre-recorded tracks right up to the final mix.
◆
◆ Add tube warmth, dynamic distortion or
speaker cabinet life to any audio track.
Line 6
Line 6 is the world leader in Modeling technology for guitarists. In addition to being the third
largest guitar amp manufacturer, we make
Variax digital modeling electric, acoustic and
bass guitars; professional stomp boxes; world
standard POD hardware for guitar and bass; and
more! Learn about it all at the Line 6 Web site
(www.line6.com).
2
Hardware Setup
Amp Farm Guide
How about just plugging the guitar’s output into
a mixer channel? Guitar pickups like to feed
into a high impedance load—at least 300 kΩ impedance; 1 MΩ is ideal for the best results. Most
mixer inputs are relatively low impedance, and
therefore don’t deliver ideal guitar tone; you
will tend to get a darker, “squashed” sound if
you plug the guitar in directly. To avoid this, we
recommend buffering your guitar’s signal before
the mixer with a quality DI box or tonally
“transparent” instrument preamp. Look for a
unit that delivers clean, uncolored sound.
With that said, you can sometimes get acceptable results plugging direct into a line level
mixer channel if you have a guitar with hot, active pickups (since the active electronic’s output
can have relatively low impedance). Do not try
to plug into a microphone level mixer input, because the extremely low impedance of mic inputs will load the active circuitry down too
much.
Do Not Over-do It!
Please do yourself a favor when setting your input levels, and don’t turn up the guitar too
much. You want to get your loudest strumming
and pick-up selection to just about reach maximum on your interface’s input meters, but not
hit the top. This will insure maximum signal-tonoise ratio, while avoiding nasty digital clipping. Of course, if you like digital clipping, who
are we to stop you?
Stomp Boxes
Got some old stomp boxes you want to run your
guitar through before Amp Farm? No problem.
Just observe the level setting precautions above.
Make sure the stomp box is not overdriving
your mixer channel or guitar direct box, and
make sure that the stomped and then boosted
signal does not overdrive your Pro Tools interface’s input. When setting your levels, be sure to
try your loudest strumming, hottest pick-up
combination, and your maximum volume boost
from the stomp box at the same time to make
sure the resulting din makes it into the Pro Tools
interface under the digital zero mark.
Radiation Alert
You will likely find, especially if you are using a
guitar with single coil pickups, that it is quite
easy to pick up some serious noise from your
computer’s monitor. CRT displays are, after all,
just special purpose ray guns that shoot light at
you all day long. Your guitar pickups receive and
amplify the electro-magnetic fields that your
display radiates, and you hear this in your audio
signal as buzz and hum. Moving farther from
the CRT, and turning your guitar so that it does
not face the computer’s display directly, will
minimize this problem. But if you find yourself
in a tight studio setup, needing to lay down
some quick tracks, and being pestered by CRTinduced buzz, you may find it helpful to do as
we have sometimes done: set up your track to
record and start your pre-roll; reach up and flick
your computer monitor’s power switch off;
record your guitar part; stop your recording,
flick the monitor back on, and check out the
buzz-free playback.
Chapter 1: Amp Farm
3
Controls
Refer to the Digidesign Plug-Ins Guide to
learn how to use standard plug-in features
like saving and recalling presets, automating
parameters, and inserting Amp Farm instances on your tracks and channels. Assuming you know about all that, we’ll go over the
other, unique controls that you will find in
Amp Farm.
Input Knob & Clip Indicator The Input knob lets
you adjust the signal level that is fed into Amp
Farm. Most of the time, you want to leave this
control alone, because using it will lead to
poorer signal-to-noise ratio performance. It’s
here to allow you to compensate for less-thanideal situations, but keep in mind that most of
the time if you’re using it, it’s just that—less
than ideal. Turn it down below the center “detent” to reduce your input level to Amp Farm,
turn it up past the center point to boost your input level into Amp Farm.
Figure 1. Amp Farm plug-In window (Tweed Blues shown)
4
Amp Farm Guide
So, when do you want to use it? When you have
got your controls maxed out on an Amp Model
(say your Treble and Mid controls are both up all
the way on the Amp Model based on the Fender
Twin and you have got a hot guitar signal coming in), you may clip Amp Farm internally (and
thus light up the Clip indicator—located above
and to the right of the Input level control). This
is just like clipping the internal circuitry on a
hardware amplifier. To avoid this clipping, back
off on the Input level until you see that the Input Clip indicator no longer lights.
The other time you would use the Input level
knob (and this is the less-than-ideal situation we
mentioned earlier) is when you have a guitar
track that’s been recorded or is being recorded at
lower than optimum volume. If you’ve given
your guitar all the analog domain boosting you
have available (as described “Hardware Setup”
on page 2) and you are still not getting enough
level into Amp Farm, then you can use this control to get more gain in the digital domain. Keep
in mind, though, that you are essentially reducing the bit depth of the guitar input by doing
this, and you will therefore get more noise and
less definition of tone.
Master Volume & Clip Indicator The Master Volume know sets the output level of Amp Farm.
The Master Volume Clip indicator is the little
red light that appears above and to the right of
the Master Volume knob to let you know when
you have gone overboard with the amount of
volume. Just turn down the Master Volume
knob until the Clip indicator no longer comes
on to insure tasty tone output.
Amp Model Menu This menu is where you select
the Amp Model you would like Amp Farm to
use.
Cab Model Menu This menu works just like the
Amp Model Menu, selecting a cabinet simulation to pair up with the Amp Model. The first
half of the list here gives you our new generation Cab Models that allow you to use the Mic
Model menu, and generally will give you the
most realistic, dynamic live tones. The second
half of the list gives you the same Cab Models as
previous versions of Amp Farm, which have an
appeal all their own, and allow compatibility
with all old Amp Farm presets.
Other Amp Model Knobs & Switches The other
knobs and switches that appear on-screen for a
particular Amp Model are set up to emulate the
controls found on the amp that the model was
based on. In the cases of amplifiers that featured
a regular and high gain channel, we have provided a toggle switch that selects between these
two. For other Amp Models, a toggle switch may
turn on or off a tremolo circuit. For the Amp
Models based on Marshall amplifiers, an Extra
Gain toggle is provided to give you the effect of
patching your regular and high gain channels
together for extra gain on input. In general, the
knobs and switches are set up to emulate, as
nearly as possible, the effect of the similarly-labeled knobs, switches, and jacks on the original
amps we modeled. For the complete story, check
out “The Amp Models” on page 7.
Drive Knob Each one of the Amp Models has a
Drive knob. This takes the place of the familiar
Volume knob, and controls how hard you’re
driving the chosen amp model. Think of it like
the input volume control on a non-master volume amp; the higher the setting, the more
“dirt.”
Chapter 1: Amp Farm
5
Track Setup
Amp Farm, like any TDM plug-in, can be applied
to any audio track, Auxiliary Input, or Master
Fader. The standard thing is to run it on an audio track. Assign your guitar as the input to the
audio track. Apply Amp Farm as one of the
track’s inserts. At this point, you should see
Amp Farm in the plug-in window, and you
should hear Amp Farm processing your guitar
input. Pick an Amp Model by clicking on the
words in the Amp Model pop-up menu. Do the
same thing in the Cab Model pop-up to make
your cabinet simulator choice. If you have
picked a Cab Model from the first half of the list,
you can also select a Mic model. Set your knobs
and switches to taste. Hit record. Play a bit. Hit
stop. Play back what you’ve recorded. Move the
knobs around. Neat, isn’t it?
Mix It Up
We encourage you to treat Amp Farm as just one
more powerful tool to be used in combination
with the others in your arsenal. For instance,
running some EQ before Amp Farm is basically
the same as using an EQ stomp box in front of a
regular (hardware) guitar amplifier, to sculpt
your tone. Also, be sure to try the sound of a
double- or triple-dip of Amp Farm—running
several instances in series or parallel to get the
kind of multi-amp tone than many artists and
producers have made one of their standard techniques for great studio guitar sound. This can be
a great way to get the clear pitch definition and
rich body of a nice clean tone, and still have the
saturation of a heavily overdriven amp setup at
the same time. And remember that if you were
recording a non-software amp you would probably add some EQ and other effects at the board
to sculpt the miked sound before you’d commit
it to tape or to your mix. Since they are emulations of amps, the same goes for your Amp Farm
6
Amp Farm Guide
tones. Also, be sure to give the “Big” Cabs a go.
While the other Amp Farm cabinets are emulations of specific cabinet and microphone configurations, the Big Cabinet Models were designed
without worrying about emulating any particular cabinet or miking technique precisely. We
just used the cabinet emulation algorithms to
give you a couple of big, beefy cabinet tones.
The frequency response of these settings is particularly smooth, in contrast to the cabinets
modeled for the real-world emulations. Real
speakers each have their own wonderful quirks
of frequency response that express themselves
as particular EQ peaks and valleys, and add up to
the special character of those speakers. Try applying some narrow EQ bumps and notches after the Big Cabs to sculpt them into your own
personal speaker tone.
The Amp Models
1959 Tweed B-Man
(Based on 1959 Fender Bassman)
The classic Fender Bassman 4x10 combo was the
amp that started it all—instant rock and roll
tone. Originally a bass guitar amp, the Bassman
became a Blues staple for 6-string guitarists. It
has the fat bottom end you’d expect from a bass
amp but also has the Fender twang on the top.
Incidentally, when Jim Marshall built his first
amps with Ken Bran they were heavily influenced by the early Bassman. The Bassman, like
many of the amps modeled for Amp Farm,
didn’t have a master volume. So to get the kind
of tone that the Bassman can deliver at higher
gain settings, you had to crank it up loud
enough to do some serious damage to anyone
who might be standing close by. With Amp
Farm, you can get that kind of tone at a bedroom or studio level—or through your headphones even! Try a drive setting of about 4 or 5
with Amp Farm’s Tweed B-Man Amp Model—
it’s guaranteed to dredge up the best R&B licks
you know.
1964 Blackface ’Lux
(Based on 1964 “Blackface” Deluxe)
The Holy Grail for many blues, country, and
“roots” players has been a blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb (of course, now that Amp Farm’s
here, that may all change). After listening to
quite a few candidates for modeling, we stumbled upon an extremely cool ’64 Deluxe. Most
players love a Deluxe when it’s turned up to
about 7 for a nice gritty sound that cleans up
when you back off your guitar’s volume knob
just a little. Notice how the tone control response changes as this Amp Model’s Drive is
changed; clean settings are crisp and present,
while more driven settings will mellow the high
end. This is typical of what you get from a Deluxe, and is nicely captured here. Tweaked up
right, this tone will cut through and sing.
1967 Double
(Based on 1967 Fender “Blackface” Twin)
The classic blackface Fender Twin (in this case, a
1967 Twin) was a real workhorse. Everybody
used it from jazz and country players to serious
rockers (I remember seeing a band where both
guitar players were using 6 Twins stacked in a
pyramid. We were in the second balcony and it
was REALLY loud even all the way back there).
The Twin has a lot of tonal flexibility and is at
home in a great many different situations. It
never gets extremely overdriven and dirty,
mostly just louder; a lot louder. With Amp Farm
you can get a full range of Twin-inspired sounds
at any volume you choose. This is the amp for
the classic surf sound: turn up the tremolo, turn
up your monitors, and look out for bikinis.
1960 Class A-30
(Based on 1960 Vox AC30)
Vox amps owe much of their unique tone quality to a Class A power amp and were standard issue for English bands in the 60s. Brian May of
Queen, Mike Campbell of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, and The Edge of U2 have also used
classic AC 30s to make their music. Vox amplifiers were actually one of the first brand of amplifiers designed specifically for electric guitar; the
other companies essentially got their designs
straight from the RCA Radio book. We were
lucky enough to find what we are told was one
of Bryan Adams’ favorite AC 30s for recording.
Lenny Kravits happened to be using it the week
before we began testing. It was one of the gems
in a great collection of vintage amplifiers offered
for rental in Los Angeles, where Line 6 is located. We later bought this amp, and continued
Chapter 1: Amp Farm
7
to hone our emulation of it to bring you the
Amp Model it inspired in Amp Farm. This is definitely a good place to start to get yourself some
of those classic British invasion sounds.
1966 Class A-30 with Top Boost
(Based on 1966 Vox AC30 with Top Boost)
Music was changing in the 60s and guitarists
were asking for more brilliance & twang. So the
Jennings Company, makers of Vox amps, decided to add Treble and Bass controls (and an extra 12AX7 gain stage, incidentally). This additional circuit became known as Top Boost.
1965 Plexi 45
(Based on 1965 Marshall JTM 45)
This Amp Model is based on a JTM-45 head with
block logo (predates the “scrolled” Marshall
logo), complete with a gold Plexiglas (Plexi)
front panel, although the sound normally associated with Plexi amps comes from the late 60s,
50-watt version that was the inspiration for the
next in Amp Farm’s line-up of Amp Models. The
JTM-45 marked the beginning of Marshall’s
transition from a mellower Fender-like tone to
the distinctive bright “crunchy” sound of the
later Marshalls.
1968 Plexi Lead 100
(based on 1968 Marshall Plexi)
The infamous Marshall Plexi—coveted by tone
connoisseurs the world over. By this time (ca.
1968) Marshall had completely changed the circuitry away from the Fender 6L6 power tube
heritage and moved to an EL34 tube; another
major tone difference was due to the necessary
output and power supply transformer changes.
(See, we told you we spent some time looking
into all this stuff.) All this mucking about added
up to create a tone forever linked with Rock Guitar. Amps of this era didn’t have any sort of master volume control, so to get this sound you’d
8
Amp Farm Guide
have to crank your “Mark III Super Amp” to
max—just the thing to help you really make
friends with the neighbors. Hendrix used Marshalls of this era; 20 years later Van Halen’s first
two records owed their “brown sound” to a Marshall Plexi. In order to get a crunch sound out of
a Plexi you would likely crank up the input volume and the tone controls (to 10!). You’ll find
that the Amp Farm Amp Model, in keeping with
our basic “make-it-sound-a-whole-lot-like-theoriginal” concept, is set up to do pretty darned
near the same thing. Max out the Mid and Treble knobs and turn Bass to about 9 or 10 o’clock
on the Amp Farm panel when using this Plexiinspired Amp Model and you can treat those
nice neighbors to a tasty slice of fat rock tone.
1986 Brit J-800
(Based on 1986 Marshall JCM 800)
Turn to this Amp Model to conjure up tones of
the coveted JCM 800, one of Marshall’s most
universally-acclaimed modern amps. This updated version of the Plexi continued Marshall’s
heritage with added gain and edge for a new
generation of rock guitarists. One of the biggest
differences here is that the tone controls are located after the preamp tubes. We worked with a
1990 JCM 800 with Master Volume to develop
this model. This is the metal sound Marshall
made famous. Although not many people play
Marshalls clean, it’s a great tone, so you should
also be sure to check out this model with a low
drive setting, too. Of course, you can always
pump up the drive and rage.... By the way, you’ll
notice that all of the Marshall-inspired Amp
Models include an Extra Gain switch. This control allows you to hook up a “virtual patch cord”
to link the normal and bright channels of these
amplifiers. This classic trick is used to get more
gain on input with these Marshall amplifiers,
and we recreate it here. Just flip this switch to
the Extra Gain position, and the patch cord
pops up on the right. Fun, huh?
1995 Treadplate Dual
(Based on 1995 Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier
Head)
The Boogie Rectifier head that this Amp Model
was based on is similar to the Rectifier combo,
taking a modern, high gain approach for that
“big hair” sound. In contrast to the earlier Boogies, the Dual Rectifier’s tone controls have
more influence at high gain settings, so you can
scoop the mids and increase the bottom end.
1994 Treadplate Trem-O
(Based on 1994 Mesa Boogie Trem-O-Verb)
You can use this Amp Model to get that tight,
high gain sound used by bands like Dream Theater or Metallica. Mesa Boogie made their mark
in the late 70s and early 80s by adding master
volumes and more gain stages to amps with
Fender-style circuitry. You can hear the Fender
heritage but with more “punch” in the mids.
The Boogie Dual Rectifier’s tone controls are
post-distortion, and as with the tone sections of
most of the amps we based our models on, the
individual controls interact with each other and
with the drive. With high drive settings, you can
scoop the mids and crank the bottom end for
some great Seattle grunge sounds.
1987 Solo 88 Pre
(Based on 1987 Soldano X-88R Preamp)
The Soldano sound is intensely overdriven, and
also has EQ after the preamp distortion. This
oversaturated tone is well-suited to thrash metal
and grunge bands, but has also been used more
subtly by artists like Eric Clapton. This is a good
Amp Model to use if you want to get a current
Van Halen or Joe Satriani sound. Talk about
high gain preamp tube distortion! The X88R we
studied to create this Amp Model would have
been the rage for Los Angeles studio use in the
late ‘80s.
1996 Match Chief
(Based on 1996 Matchless Chieftain)
The ‘96 Matchless Chieftain, which was studied
for this Amp Model, is a very expensive handmade amp with a Class A design. Originally designed to sound like a top-boost Vox AC 30, the
Matchless does not exactly have a Vox sound,
but something unique (largely due to the complicated EQ scheme). The sound is sort of “future retro.” Its soft clipping is typical of Class A
amplifiers; almost a “hi-fi” sound in a great rock
n’ roll amplifier.
1989 Solo 100 Head
(Based on 1989 Soldano SLO Head)
This sound is modeled after a Soldano SLO (Super Lead Overdrive) head. With snake skin tolex
covering and everything! Unlike the X88R
preamp studied for the next Amp Model, the
SLO includes a presence control, plus other little
details that give it a bit of a different sound.
With the Drive control cranked way up, you’ll
get sustain for days.... Go out’n’ave a bite—
when you come back it’ll still be sustaining!
Chapter 1: Amp Farm
9
Amp Farm DSP Requirements
The Amp Farm plug-in has the following DSP requirements:
10
44.1 or 48 kHz
88.2 or 96 kHz
174.6 or 192 kHz
5
2
2
When running on one of the seven 220 MHz
chips of an HD Accel card
2
1
0
When running on any of the chips of an HD
Core or HD Power card, or one of the two lower
power, “original HD” chips of the HD Accel
cards
Amp Farm Guide